


A Found Family

by WhumpTown



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Good Parent Gil Arroyo, Parental Gil Arroyo, Protective Gil Arroyo, Team as Family, soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:12:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22934608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhumpTown/pseuds/WhumpTown
Summary: Gil acting as the dad of each of the team members over the years
Relationships: Gil Arroyo & Dani Powell, Gil Arroyo & Edrisa Tanaka, Gil Arroyo & JT Tarmel, Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Gil Arroyo/Jackie Arroyo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 62





	1. Lightbulb

When his phone lit up with the text notification, Gil expected an update from JT or Dani. At the worst, a half tangible overly elongated paragraph in explanation from Malcolm on why he thinks the stupid idea wasn’t that bad. Then a follow up from Dani on how awful Malcolm’s idea was before and after he acted on it. 

He hadn’t expected it to be from Edrisa and he certainly hadn’t expected her to be asking him to change a lightbulb for her. It’s easy to forget how high the basement’s ceilings are and Edrisa is very small. Still, in order of people Edrisa talks to he’s mostly at the bottom. He regards the message seriously, though, and ventures to the basement. 

Not, at all, expecting to get down there and find Edrisa Tanaka M.D. standing on an examination table. She’s leaning as far to one side as she can, nearly toppling herself over its edge. “Get-” Gil picks a feather duster off of the counter. “Get off of that!” He uses its soft end to have a whack at Edrida, lightly tapping her ankles with the duster. Instead of hopping off the examination table, as he had hoped she would, she just attempts to avoid his swats. “Edrisa!” 

She giggles at him, seeing his anxiety about her falling as funny. He keeps swatting until she jumps off the edge of the table, laughing at him as she lands on the floor. “Thank you for coming down Lieutenant!” She points up at the ceiling, acting as if she wasn’t just chased off the table by a Swiffer welded by her boss. “As you can see,” she motions to the offending lightbulb, “I have a problem.”

Gil takes one look at the bulb and nods, his job accepted. “Do you have a replacement bulb?” He could easily place a call to maintenance but he knows he passed a ladder on his way down. Not to mention putting in the papers for a request will take longer than just replacing the damn thing itself.

Edrisa nods, producing a bulb from, seemingly, thin air. “You betcha!” She hands it to him, happily.

“Alright.” He’s replaced plenty of lightbulbs and this one is no different. Only, Edrisa’s become his self-appointed spotter at the bottom of the ladder. This spotter happens to be very chatty with only a hundred questions concerning circuits and wiring. He’s all for learning, being Malcolm surrogate father has taught him patience for that, but he doesn’t actually know anything about electricity. 

“Not sure,” he mumbles, his shoulders burning with the strain of holding his arms above his head for so long. Edrisa peppers him with a new round of questions, this one time about on his high school education and rising through the ranks as a colored man. “Phillopino,” he corrects, blinking harshly as the lightbulb clicks into spot and the room is adjusted back to its normal brightness.

“What?” She’s distracted from his correction immediately, attention turned to the light. “Yay!” He’s still making his way down the ladder when he feels her throw her arms around his waist. “Thank you so much, Gil!”

He sputters for a moment. Certainly not expecting that. Instincts kick in and he hugs her back, even smiling. “No problem, Edrisa.” He pats her back once and sighs, suddenly remembering how this adventure began. “Hey,” he frowns, all too conscious of the fact that he sounds like a dad as he reprimands her. “No more standing on crap.”

She frowns, “no promises but I’ll do my best.”

Gil frowns back but he also realizes all he can do is ask her to be careful and she’s promised him her best. So he shakes his head,” fine.” He’s resigned his fate as the worrywart old man but it’s a fate he’s taken out of love for a few idiot adults.


	2. It's Just A Scratch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JT

“All that time in the Army and didn’t get shot once?” Gil clicks his tongue, acting nonchalant for the benefit for detective squirming under his hold. “Alright,” Gil fixing his eyes on JT and calmly explains himself. “I’m gonna look, real quick. You won’t even feel it.” Gil lifts his hand quickly from the wound, using his fingers as a shield so JT can’t see for himself.

“How-How bad is it, boss?”

He doesn’t want to lie because it is serious and he doesn’t want JT to get the wrong impression… “They’ll probably have to cut it off,” he ventures, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He receives a small smile for this effort before it’s twisted into a pained grimace. “You’re gonna be fine, kid. Just a scratch.” Gil places both his hands over the wound, glancing over his shoulder for the ambulance one of the beat cops called in. “You’ll have a cool scar.”

JT chuckles edged in pain. “Not-Not exactly what I-I was going for when I joined the force, boss.” He closes his eyes, pinched shut as a wave of pain washes over him. Gil notices the pallor his olive skin is quickly taking on.

“Stay with me, now.” Gil can remember when JT first joined the station. He’d done a few rounds in some city a few states over before moving to New York. He was quiet, spent all his time actually doing his work. It took time to get under the neat walls JT used to protect himself. Gil found out, quickly, that earning the younger man’s trust was hard but once gained, you could not ask for a more loyal friend. “Tally is gonna be right mad about this as is, can’t have you unconscious when I have to make the call.”

JT groans, letting his head hit the concrete below his body. “Tally is gonna kill me.” 

Gil nods,” yep.” 

Hours later, Gil is still around. He’s Tally’s shoulder to cry on, as he explains the situation and JT’s fast thinking. He listens as Tally takes her frustrations out. 

“Tally,” Jackie greets as she steps into JT’s room. She’s not surprised that her husband is spilled into one of the chairs, neck bent at an angle that will bother him when he wakes up. “How are you, dear?” She can remember the way she felt the first time Gil got himself into similar trouble. Reckless men and their careers of choice... 

Tally melts into Jackie’s embrace, sobbing into the older woman’s shoulder as she had Gil’s before. “He left the army, Jackie,” she cries. “He was supposed to leave the danger behind.” 

Jackie looks to the men before her. JT looks well enough. His right arm is strapped to his chest in a sling and his still a little pale but there’s no denying it’s him. The bull-headed, ex-soldier her husband has taken interest in. Speaking of, her husband snores lightly and it wakes him just enough that he cracks an eye open. He looks over JT and settles back down, falling back asleep as if it were nothing. 

“I know,” she cups the side of Tally’s cheek. “Trust me, I know.” She motions to their husbands, “but what would you have me do with them, love?”

Tally sniffles, running a hand under her nose. She steps around Jackie, sitting down in the other chair. “Nothing,” Tally whispers, taking her husband’s good hand. “I suppose.”

Jackie smiles and steps to her own husband. She shakes his shoulder gently, stirring him awake. “Come on, love.” She pulls him to his feet, handing him his coat as he rubs the sleep from his eyes. “Let’s get you home.”

Gil follows Jackie, going where her warm hand beckons. He stops at the door,” Tally? You’ll-”

“-call if we need anything or if his condition changes?” Tally smiles at Gil, familiar with his protective ways. “Of course, now go home.” She smiles softly at the two of them and turns back to JT, shaking her head. 

She hadn’t been thrilled when JT decided to be a cop. Coming to New York, though, and watching him really open up since coming home has been… She’s thankful beyond words for Jackie and Gil.


	3. Dani

The commissioner’s voice wavers through the crowd, his glasses pushed down the thick of his nose as he looks at his notes. He drones on about duty, Gil gets the sense that a rookie has prepared this speech and not the commissioner himself. No matter, his attention is split between the other man’s dull words and the freshly recovered detective staring blankly at the floor. Tonight is for her, and countless other men, but to Gil, it’s for her. 

Curls fall down and obscure her face, hiding the tear tracks. She refuses to look into the crowd, to see the countless faces of men and women being lied to. The commissioner sells her as a hero, right up there with officers who have lost their lives. Except, she’s not like them. Nothing like them. In the end, only she and Gil knows what happened. If Gil had reported her overdose for what it was, it would have been overlooked anyway. Too much paperwork.

The ceremony passes in a blur. The medal on her chest weighs her down, startlingly heavy. She blinks the tears from her eyes as countless people shake her hand, commending her for her undercover work. They don’t know about the overdose or the emotional affair she had with a drug dealer. 

They throw her a party, keep celebrating what they think is a win. She failed them, can’t they see that?

“Powell.” She’s pulled from her thoughts, from her spiraling head. She turns her head in the direction of the warmth at her right side. Gil’s stretching himself out on the porch swing beside her, kicking the ground to send them swinging softly. “Why aren’t you joining in at your party? You only get these sort of parties once, you know.” He wraps an arm around the back, consequently around her shoulders too. 

She just shakes her head, arms slowly folding over her chest. She glances at him from the corner of her eye, aware of how close they are. Really, he’s been there for her through the last few weeks like no one else. He has always been there. “You know,” she whispers, shame dripping into her words. “I don’t deserve it, Gil.”

He hums, nodding his head. He pushes them again, rocking calmly as he turns this over. “Why don’t you deserve it,” he asks, fingers absent-mindedly tapping the back of the swing. “I think you deserve it and so does everyone in that house,” he points the beer she hadn’t realized he had in his hand to his house. 

Her cheeks burn as she recalls he’s the one who is throwing this party, for her. He’s proud and she knows he’s also secretly overjoyed she’s back where he can watch her. Where he can protect her. So, she nods and for a moment she thinks maybe he’s right. Maybe she does deserve this and then… “I did drugs, Gil.” Her eyes burn and she has to turn her head away from him, to the wall as her chin trembles. “I’m not a hero.”

Gil chuckles, shaking his head. “You went undercover, Dani.” He doesn’t bother fighting with her just puts his hand on her shoulder. A reminder that he’s there, even when she doesn’t want him to be. He’ll drag her out for stake-outs all week if it means she gets out of the house. He’ll make her listen to Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen until she’s begging him to put something different on, something better. 

He’ll support her and he’ll love her, just like he always has. 

She sniffles, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. She lets go, not of her guilt but of her anger. Just for now, for this. She leans back against his arm, her head on his shoulder. “Gil?” She can remember last summer in his backyard. Jackie made one of her fantastic casseroles and fed them watermelon until Dani thought she would burst. 

“Hmm?”

She closes her eyes, “do you think… do you think my dad would be proud?” A tear manages to escape from her eyelashes and her breath shakes as she cries openly.

“Hey,” Gil catches under her chin. He forces her head up, wiping a tear with the rough pad of his chin. “He would be speechless, Dani. You’re a brave woman, strong. He’d be beyond proud.” He moves his hand to her cheek, his voice serious. He smiles, “I know because I’m proud of you Dani.”

Dani nods and her lips tremble. She wraps her arms around Gil’s shoulders, burying her face in his neck as she cries. He wraps his arms around her too, rubbing soft circles on her back. “Easy, kid,” he soothes. “Easy.” 

Jackie finds them a few minutes later, wondering how her husband managed to sneak away. Dani is stretched out on the swing, Gil rocking them slowly with his long legs. His hand is resting on her shoulder, her head in his lap. Jackie airs her concern with a raised eyebrow. Gil nods, smiling. ‘Good’ she mouths back and gives him a small wink before stepping back into the house. 

Gil sits with her until the sun goes down and most of their party guest have left. He guides her to the couch, she’s been crashing there a lot lately. He pulls a blanket up over her shoulders. 

“Gil?”

He stops, hand raised to turn the lights out. “Yeah, kid?”

“Thanks… for everything.”

Gil smirks and turns the lights out,” anytime, kid. Anytime.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking each team member gets a chapter and then a bonus of how they reciprocate his love by like getting him coffee or some bs like that


End file.
